The werewolf alpha and his favorite female were thrilled with the night’s hunt. The others would soon return after they dealt with the feeble cats. While they were gone, he and his queen feasted on a whole herd of tender and meaty cattle. He had eaten seven of the bloody beef livers and was about to split open an eighth of the crippled beasts for yet another. Blood flowed as his belly filled. This was life at its best for the alpha and dawn was still hours away.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the woods I was sitting high up in the branches of an elm tree with the little cat girl still clinging to me tightly with her face buried in my chest and her eyes closed. She was still shuddering with quiet sobs which tore at my heart and caused an unexpected amount of rage to bubble up in my gut.

I watched the too silent farmhouse intensely, gently patting the quivering girl’s back with my right hand.

My patience was rewarded a minute later when I finally spotted a subtle movement in the shadow of the house. One of the dark grey werewolves was hiding there and obviously keeping watch, probably waiting for the returning three that I had killed. Two humanoid corpses also littered the field below. One was missing its head, and the other was ravaged by dozens of horrible wounds with a shredded blood soaked dress in tatters all around her. Ohh were these mutts going to fucking die...

I didn’t want to expose the kid to what was most likely the bodies of her parents, and so I whispered as gently but firmly as I could just next to her ear.

“Can you look up at me?” I asked. Her ear twitched once, and with great effort she complied.

Large bloodshot eyes slowly opened, tears still freely flowing. She looked up, and her eyes finally met mine. Anguish, sadness, grief beyond measure roiled in that silver eyed stare. I held her gaze and swallowed.

“I am going to destroy the monsters that did this. All of them.” I spoke slowly and clearly. “I’m going to give you a magical drink that makes it so they can’t find you. After you drink it, just stay here, don’t look down, and stay quiet. I promise to come back for you. Do you understand?”

“Understand...” She spoke so softly that I had to lean down even closer. “Promise?”

I held out my pinky, which she looked at uncomprehendingly. I urged her to do the same and she held out her own clawed pinky finger with obvious confusion. I wrapped my finger around hers and shook it gently once.

“There, now the promise can’t ever be broken.” I said.

“More magic?” She asked with a small hiccup.

“Very powerful magic.” I replied with a solemn nod. She seemed to take a tiny bit of comfort from that.

I selected one of my more valuable potions, of which I only had eighty and it appeared in my hand. She stifled a surprised squeak and looked at the cloudy vial.

“Drink the whole thing.” I instructed seriously, pulling the stopper and handing it to her.

She took it with trembling hands and barely hesitated.

“Sweet...” She whispered.

A second later, she faded from view becoming fully invisible. The potion also blocked sound and smell for the duration of the effect as long as she didn’t do anything hostile to any other creatures.

“Remember, don’t look down and don’t move no matter what you hear until I come back.” I reiterated.

I couldn’t detect a response obviously, and picked my way easily down the branches. A few moments later I was stalking from shadow to shadow downwind of the sentry.

This was home. As a mostly solo player always pushing the very edges of what was possible in terms of difficulty, I had been relying on stalking and ambush tactics for years. I was beyond professional. Sneak attacks inherently did multiplied damage, the exact multiplier depended on the anatomy of the victim and the body part hit. The highest damage multiplier to my knowledge was ten times normal damage. With my grossly inflated strength and accuracy developed over tens of thousands of kills, a one-on-one fight against an unaware enemy like this was nothing.

The cold steel dagger punched through the bored werewolf sentry’s spine just below its skull. Death was instant. I guided the body down, using the embedded dagger as a handle while my other hand gripped the coarse fur of the monster’s chest. The densely muscled beast felt no heavier than a two liter soda in my hands and a grim smile settled onto my face. I was getting stronger. I had graduated from amoeba to housefly in comparison to my former self.

“Appraisal.” I said nearly silently, looking at the corpse.

Moonwolf Soldier

Level: 20

Life: 0/50

Strength: 20

Endurance: 25

Agility: 20

Soul: 6

Skills:

Moonwolf : When the moon is at least half full, gain a powerful humanoid form. All attacks deal double damage and all incoming attacks deal half damage in Moonwolf form.

Pack: While within (100’) of another Moonwolf, gain immunity to fear and domination effects.

The stats were underwhelming. I wasn’t surprised though. There had been beasts like this in EG. They were known as false werewolves. They weren’t true lycanthropes and thus couldn’t infect others or change to human form, and were vastly weaker than the real deal. They were empowered by moonlight, but beyond that were just two legged direwolves.

I walked the few feet to the headless corpse, and picked up the spear still held in the body’s lifeless grip. I then crept around the cabin, and the barn came into view. A slaughtered and mostly stripped carcass of a bull lay just before the blasted barn door. Steam and the smell of blood and manure rolled out from the demolished entrance. The sound of continued chewing and soft contended growling also filtered out. I caught sight of a long black tail gently wagging back and forth. By the size of it, and the slaughtered bull carcass I had the feeling this was the boss. I adjusted my pace and hoped Appraisal would work with the limited view. I breathed a sigh of relief, then raised an eyebrow at the information that was revealed.

Doomhowl

Level: 55

Life: 170/170 Soul Energy 8/16

Strength: 40

Endurance: 85

Agility: 40

Soul: 4

Skills:

Moonwolf : When the moon is at least half full, gain a powerful humanoid form. All attacks deal double damage and all incoming attacks deal half damage in Moonwolf form.

Pack: While within (100’) of another Moonwolf, gain immunity to fear and domination effects.

Alpha’s Howl: Doubles the Effects of Moonwolf on all nearby creatures for (60) seconds. Cost (8) Soul Energy

“Found you.” I growled as I opened my inventory screen.

Normally I would have conserved my resources and prepared an ambush for the enemy that was so much higher leveled than me. Normally I would have treated this like any other boss type encounter. Normally I wasn’t so very, very angry.

A perfectly smooth sphere of obsidian appeared in my hand. In it thrummed a red light. It pulsed like a slowly beating heart. It was a legendary artifact, gained by defeating Pyrathagos, a god-like fire elemental guarding the eight hundredth layer of the Primordial themed abyss. The item had one of the longest known cooldowns of any effect in EG and with damn good reason.

*Used Item: Core of Pyrathagos-Artifact

“The Primal Fire Blesses You.”

Duration: 4m:59s

Cooldown: 29d:23h:59m:59s

Inside the barn, something made Doomhowl’s fur stand on end. He was practically drunk from the amount of rich meat packing his belly. He lazily raised his head from the half eaten eighth liver, his mind slower than his sharp instincts. There was a whooshing and crackling sound like a bonfire. Then there was a glow. Just as a growl was rising in his throat, the air in the barn vanished in a blast of heat so intense it singed the tips of his black fur. When the flash was over and his vision slowly returned, the alpha’s intelligent eyes widened in shock. The roof, and top half of the barn were simply gone. Full moonlight shone on him and his still stunned mate. The remaining bottom of the barn was glowing red at the point where the top half had once been connected. The wood was cleanly sheared away, as though it were paper cut by red hot scissors. A deep, menacing voice that echoed like a roaring forge boomed into his mind. He couldn’t comprehend the words but the tone was terrifying.

“You shouldn’t fuck around with kids.” I said calmly.

I now stood just over nine feet tall, looking down on the giant moonwolves. My skin was obsidian black riddled with spiderweb cracks of glowing magma. The feeling of power was beyond my ability to describe. How do you explain the feeling of the destructive force of a volcano at your fingertips? A suit of white hot full platemail encased my altered form. My eyes and hair were now composed of pure crackling flame. In my right hand was a great flaming sword, in my left hand was the plain spear of the murdered catfolk. The shaft of the weapon was already beginning to char. That was fine, no fights against a fire titan lasted long.

Doomhowl was an intelligent beast, but it was no coward. With a mighty howl that carried the weight of magic, it leaped with impressive speed at me. Courageous but futile.

“Worlds with stats...” I began, planting the spear into the dirt before snapping my hand out to intercept the slow motion (in my perspective) leap. “Are not fair.” I finished by plunging my flaming hand into the fake werewolf’s gaping mouth. I seized the beast’s long tongue (ignoring the vicious bite that caused no damage) and yanked backwards, blackened tongue in hand. The alpha made a strange agonized noise and dropped to the ground, smoke pouring from its jaws. The morbid wound did not bleed, my attack had seared it shut instantly. I opened my hand and only ashes drifted down.

The female howled suddenly and charged upon regaining her senses. My right arm twitched, and two perfectly bisected halves of the enraged female flew to either side of me. There was no blood, just copper scented steam.

The alpha flew into a rage then, swiping wildly at me with both claws. I didn’t even move to parry. A moment later he drew back two charred stumps that ended just below his elbows after the armor of Pyrathagos vaporized his pathetic flesh. My sword flashed again, and the alpha felt cool dirt on his back. Both of his legs up to the knee were still standing, but were no longer attached to his body.

The rage couldn’t hold back the pain any longer, and the mighty Doomhowl existed in a world of pure agony. The flaming monstrosity that was me stood over him, once again holding the charred spear. The red hot spear tip entered Doomhowl’s overstuffed belly slowly. Chewed up meat, liver, blood, bile, and thick steam pumped from the wound as he convulsed. He couldn’t even shriek or howl for his burned mouth no longer worked. The spear stabbed into him many more times before his health finally ran out and he mercifully expired.

Rot in hell you son of a bitch.